Plastic Pilot

The race towards aviation improvement never stops. Improvements pop-out here and there nearly every day, mostly aiming at a better flow of traffic, or to reduce fuel consumption… but not only. Here is a compilation of four recent developments in various fields of aviation.

DeltaHawk is developing a new aero-diesel engine. It will rely on a mechanical ignition system (no FADEC). 180 and 200 HP models will be available. The certification process with FAA is already started for the 180HP model, and should follow for other variants after the first one will be certified.

The Challis Heli-Plane is a mixture between a helicopter and an airplane. To break the 250 MPH speed-limit imposed to helicopters by the retreating blade problem, the heli-plane has one… wing ! Only one, on the retreating blade side. This very special aircraft has also a propeller in its nose, like an airplane. Some demonstration videos of an actual radio-controlled model are available on their website.

Numerical simulation of wake turbulence vortex also progressed, thanks to a team of the swiss institute for technology. Vortexes modelling is always limited by computational power. The team in Zurich achieved the higher resolution ever in representation of wake turbulence. This could lead to better understanding of these dangerous phenomenon, and eventually help reducing the time between take-offs and landings, thus improving airports capacity.

Research is also progressing on the ATC front, with so-called “Point Merge” approaches. Air traffic controllers typically use holding patterns or vectoring on downwind and base to put aircrafts in sequence. With Point Merge, all aircrafts fly arcs of circles, all centered around the same point, at the same radius, but different altitudes. With this technique, the controller always knows how much time a flight will need to reach this point, which is the start of the final approach. This reduces the number of radio transmissions, and increases airspace capacity.